Upfront payment of house rent is evil
By Femi Eseku
Wednesday, December 17, 2008


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Three things are most important in life. They are food, clothing and shelter. Every other rudimentary of existence is an added component and advantage of comfort to make life a better place for mankind.

It is absolutely impossible for human beings, to live for days without food, walk around town naked and most of all, possess no shelter to protect them from the harsh realities of and against nature in the cause of existence.

If these basic necessities of life are absent, then mankind can as well be reduced to the state of natural cannibalism and brutish savagery. Like animals, his life would be based on the ultimate quest to survive at all cost, by either eliminating his foes and adversaries or being eliminated himself.

According to the Christian theological beliefs, before man came into existence, God had prepared for man the necessary requirements and raw materials he would need to control and dominate his environment. This in its self is a demonstration of how God expected mankind to plan and organize his domain in subsequent dealings with other aspects of life. But unfortunately man has continually found it difficult to recreate the model set up for him by the Supreme Being. The simple reasons for these inadequacies are basically, greed and self-centeredness.

The focus of this write up is to beam the spot light on the gross challenges confronting our society in the tripartite areas of food, clothing and most especially accommodation as it affects the common man on a daily basis. However, my major concern in this article shall be on the accommodation crisis across Nigeria. In the early and mid 1990’s, the Nigerian government, then under the draconian ruler ship of the military, boasted to have every citizen adequately housed by the year 2000! What precipitated this promise was a colossal misnomer that is germaine to Nigerian leadership syndrome filled with empty promises and shattered dreams.

In the face of these acute failures, the citizens naturally took personal initiatives of their own to construct and own their personal homes as a means to cushion the effect of accommodation backlogs in the country. At all cost, every home dreaming owner sought to build an edifice in their quest to better and fill the voids created by the erring leaders. While it is true to conclude that Nigerians are the most condescending peoples on earth, who are most reluctant to pragmatically demand for their rights from constituted authority, they struggle ahead to “squeeze water out of a dry desert stone”.

The resultant effects of this phenomenon is that most fortunate home owners, have had to squeeze further, other citizens and home seekers of the penance they earn in other to find a place to put their head for survival. The most atrocious of this act is the fact that the so called landlords in connivance with their average criminal minded “agents” demand unspeakable prices and conditions from helpless tenants.

It is unfortunate to note that these lords ask for two years rents in advance from helpless tenants as well as exorbitant agency and agreement fees before they are allowed to occupy and commence their tenancy. This practices, though grossly illegal, has become most certainly a “holy writ” in our society.
Be that as it may, I believe it is wrong for us in this country to continue to accept such insidious and insolvent practices when both government and private employers do not pay their workers upfront of two or more years, like the common man is required to pay for accommodation albeit illegally.

Government claimed to have put legislations in place to regulate prices in the real estate sector, but we are not fooled. Nothing is regulated. Cost of building materials continue to soar high and this gave room for quacks to exploit and flood the unregulated market with inferior materials, which have in return caused collapsed buildings and dead bodies in its wake.
In several other civilized countries of the world, tenants are required to pay for house rent on a monthly basis, since they are paid monthly.

The root of this misnomer in Nigeria most especially in Lagos, stemmed from the mass exodus of rural migration to the urban centers across the country, thereby causing over crowding and high demands for space. In desperation, foreigners who are willing to get accommodated at all cost, incite landlords with mouth-watering offers that is difficult to refuse.

The worst culprit of this erroneous practice is the government itself. They claim to build low cost housing schemes for low-income earners, only to ask them in return, to pay between four to five million naira in acquisition payment. How can they expect low earners to afford such arrangements, when it is public knowledge that the minimum wage is a paltry N7, 500 for federal workers and N5, 000 for most state workers? Even a 30 years payment plan can hardly offset half of the requested cost. I should think that government is not a profit making organization, but a socially responsible outfit, with the utmost concern and interest of the people at heart.

Government should stop deceiving the masses. All the so called home they are building, can only be afforded by the few rich peoples who in turn milk the poor further of their meager incomes. The government should stop riding on their high horse for once, and open their eyes to see the teeming peoples living under the bridges and slums of our cities. Some of these people came to the cities with high dreams and set goals only for it to be shattered by unemployment, hunger and homelessness.

If we are to meet up with the millennium development goals (MDGs) and the economic target by the year 2020, we need to be able to address these salient issues, which are hunger and homelessness. No society can boast to be vibrant when the teeming numbers of its youths are hopeless and not adequately empowered.

Perhaps, we wont need to have people constructing high fences like the walls of Jericho to surround their houses, if the basic necessities of life are provided for the common man. The root of this evil and malaise is nothing but greed and corruption and for crying out loud, this madness must be stopped in the interest of Nigeria and Nigerians. Government can hardly enforce a legislation in which they themselves are the biggest offenders.

They should put the horse before the cart and place round pegs in round holes, by doing the right thing. They should construct affordable houses and make them available to the low-income earners on a monthly basis, based on their paid wages. Projects should be put up in response to this matter.

They should encourage private employers to acquire land to do the same for their employees. If this is done, I am optimistic that landlords and landladies will be forced to tow the line and make life more bearable for the common man. By doing this, Nigeria will be fulfilling the original plan of God to make the earth the dwelling place of his most loved creatures.

•Femi writes from Lagos
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http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/features/freekick/2008/dec/17/freekick-17-12-2008-001.htm

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